Massive improvements have been made to the production of the ONE ESports Singapore Major.
The previously poor production values of the Dota 2 streams have improved greatly since the Wild Card rounds. Smoother video streams, clearer, and mostly in-sync audio now provide an excellent viewing experience of the Playoffs. That being said, there is still room for improvement, especially the awkward green screen background with Singapore’s scenery shown during the Dota 2 caster panel.
The Singapore Major had kicked off last Saturday (27th March), but encountered a rocky start.
The highly anticipated event previously disappointed many fans and viewers with their lacklustre production, with many viewers lashing out on the live Twitch stream.
The audio and visual of the live streams were one of the most cited complaints of fans with fans from Reddit the most vocal. One of them compared the voice quality to a kid that received “blue snowball as a Christmas present and decided to make a Minecraft Let’s Play channel”.
Connection problems also plagued the production of the first major Dota 2 tournament since COVID-19 struck. The stream was forced to drop multiple times, while the audio clearly did not match the visuals on screen.
It has been a rough start for the Singapore Major. Just a day before the event began, Na’Vi and beastcoast announced that they were forced to withdraw due to COVID-19 concerns. The organiser, ONE Esports, had to change up the format of the knockouts. Instead of two wildcards making the cut for the group stages, three will now go through.
But the problems did not prevent the teams from putting up a scintillating performance on the first day of the Wild Card round. Some amazing team plays were logged but it was clear who the best team of the first day was. Team Liquid put up a domineering performance, winning all three matchups on Day 1, with Michael “miCKe” Vu in top form as the team’s strategies clicked into gear. AS Monaco Gambit trailed in second place, while the third spot was taken up by Vici Gaming.
With their initial broadcasting woes somewhat solved, let’s hope that the organisers maintain some standards for the remaining days.
